Team unhappy fighting for lower pointsGiancarlo Fisichella has already conceded that race wins and therefore the championship are not on for Renault this year and his problem was highlighted in Bahrain on Sunday. Starting seventh, the Italian fought hard race long and took
the chequered flag in eighth position.
Giancarlo, how was the race for you?
"Well, the first thing was that I made it to the finish. That was important because I retired from this race in the last two seasons. After that, in terms of the result, the best we could have done today was 7th – and I was 8th."
The car looked competitive in the opening part of the race…
"For sure. I made a good start, but couldn’t gain any positions, and I could feel that the pace was good. But I was stuck behind Kubica, who had a very heavy fuel load and was struggling with the car. That meant I couldn’t build any gap over Webber, and limited our choices for the strategy."
You seemed to lose pace in the middle stint. What happened?
"I think we probably made a small mistake in how we ran the race, because I was very heavy in that stint, and the tyres just went away really quickly. I was fighting with the rear end, and I lost of time and some positions too.
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But by the final laps, you were pushing hard to pass Jarno?
"That’s right. We put the hard tyres on in the second stop, the balance was good again and I caught Jarno very quickly. I was much quicker, and I was trying hard to get past, but the conditions were difficult, very low grip, and it was hard to get close enough to try and pass. I got alongside, but couldn’t quite make it stick."
So all in all, another tough race…
"Yes, that’s how they are for us at the moment. With only a week since Sepang, nothing had changed on the car, and we expected a similar result to what we saw in Malaysia. The conditions were difficult, and the problem in the middle stint meant we didn’t quite do the maximum yesterday. But nobody at Renault is happy to be fighting for P7, and I know the guys at the factory are pushing really hard to develop the car and improve our situation as quickly as we can."
Source Renault
